'The Vampire Diaries' Season 3 Spoilers: The Season of the OriginalsThursday, May 19, 2011

The Vampire Diaries ended its second season with some big changes.
Stefan turned to the dark side and joined Klaus, Damon and Elena grew
closer and Jeremy started seeing ghosts of his dead girlfriends. Season 3
is sure to be full of intense emotions, origin stories for the
originals and some big stories for the minor characters.

"Season three opens the door to learn more about Klaus and The Original Family as his motives for wanting Stefan on his side are finally revealed. As Stefan sinks deeper into the dark side, Damon and Elena struggle with the guilt of their growing bond even as they work together to bring Stefan back from the edge. The ghosts from Jeremy's past have a powerful message they're trying to deliver to him, not to mention the impact they're having on his relationship with Bonnie. And as Caroline and Tyler grow closer, a war erupts between their families."

In addition, when the CW listed the official cast for season 3, it included Joseph Morgan as Klaus, which suggests that he has most likely been promoted to a series regular, or at the very least, he'll be in a lot of season 3. This makes sense since we'll be getting an origin story for how the Original Family became vampires and why Klaus was so eager to team up with Stefan.

However, I'm also interested in the minor characters. It looks like Caroline and Tyler will be having a Romeo and Juliet love affair with the warring Forbes and Lockwood families. The Vampire Diaries started this at the end of season 2 when Mayor Carol Lockwood threatened to replace Caroline's mom as sheriff, and while that scene seemed innocent, it was obviously designed to set up a big storyline for those two founding families. My only concern is that, other than the two moms, there are no other Lockwoods or Forbes to keep the feud going. Hopefully the show will introduce some more relatives.

Jeremy also looks to be getting a big storyline as the ghosts of Anna and Vicki try to give him a message. Clearly him seeing dead people isn't just a side effect of coming back from the dead, but also an important part of a larger mystery.

With those two stories, plus Stefan's dark side and the growing romance of Elena and Damon, The Vampire Diaries season 3 will be full of excitement.